Hi all! Welcome to a special joint cube update where I will discuss both Kaladesh and Conspiracy: Take the Crown. While there are some interesting Conspiracy cards in the appropriately named Conspiracy: Take the Crown, I have chosen a design philosophy for my cube that does not include any Conspiracies. The reason for this is that they are almost always automatic must drafts because they do not count against your total number of cards in your deck making them essentially free. I think they are more appropriate for a powered cube as opening the best Conspiracies really is on par with power. No really. As such, I won't be discussing any of the conspiracies. Luckily, that still leaves us with tons of cards to talk about so lets go!
White
In Out
I really like all the mechanics of Kaladesh. They all make for interesting game play decisions even if energy doesn't translate to cube very well at all. Fabricate, however, fits right in with the white token strategy and Angel of Invention is one of the better fabricate cards. It's a tough call to say that one of the modes is strictly better and a lot of it will depend on board states. The flexibility of being able to choose between a Gisela and Cloudgoat makes up for the modes being slightly worse than those cards. The fact that the anthem effect comes attached regardless of mode is what pushes this over the top.
Archangel of Thune was interesting. It wasn't bad but only really triggered when it was able to attack and deal damage. There just aren't an overhwelming amount of other ways to gain life in cube. The odd creature with lifelink or the random spell with gain X life attached to it. It's few and far between. If you can successfully gain life in a couple other ways, yes, Archangel of Thune is crazy good. It just rarely worked out that way.
In Out
Increasing Devotion always got pushed to the board in favor of other five drops and the flashback was just way too expensive to ever be utilized. I like the card in theory but it doesn't do enough anymore. Raise the Alarm is an underrated spell that I especially like because of its instant speed. It works well with anthems and is a much cheaper alternative to Increasing Devotion.
In Out
Fragmentize is another Disenchant variant that is cheaper and less efficient. Historically these types of effects have been worth the cost reduction and this still kills 90% of the targets that Disenchant does. Almost all artifacts/enchantments in cube cost less than five mana and the ones that don't usually have a ton of their power wrapped up in cast/ETB effects (Myr Battlesphere) or death effects (Wurmcoil Engine) making them less than ideal targets in the first place.
Spirit Bonds never really took off. I thought it was borderline at the time but wanted to try it out and it just never saw play. The spirit clause is weird and clunky and it's just too slow and durdly to be effective. Nobody is missing this.
Spirit Bonds never really took off. I thought it was borderline at the time but wanted to try it out and it just never saw play. The spirit clause is weird and clunky and it's just too slow and durdly to be effective. Nobody is missing this.
In Out
Fumigate does everything that a good wrath should do (besides cost 4 mana). It destroys all creatures and goes above and beyond by recouping some of the life lost throughout the game. This probably isn't going to gain more than four or five life most of the time but that is still a significant gain for control decks that are looking to achieve parity. Rout, on the other hand, is mostly just a five mana wrath with a no-regen clause. I have casted it as an instant once and, yes it was sweet, but 90% of the time I would have traded the ability to do so for three or four life in a heartbeat.
Didn't Make the Cut
Aerial Responder has gotten a lot of comparisons to Vampire Nighthawk, and understandably so. The only real difference between the two is the swap out for vigilance over deathtouch. However, it's not like this blocks particularly well against most decks so the vigilance is kind of weird. It gets a lot better with anthems than Nighthawk does but the real problem is the color. White's three drops have a much higher barrier for entry than do black's. This isn't better than the existing options and while it would be fine in a different color, it's not enough to get into white's section.
Aetherstorm Roc would be good if the ability was able to be activated every turn. However, without any other way to make energy this will likely be only triggered every other turn and that is both misleading to drafters and drops this borderline card well below entry level power.
Didn't Make the Cut
I've never been a huge fan of Cataclysm as the opponent gets to choose what they keep. Tragic Arrogance has turned out to be much better than it in my experience. Cataclysmic Gearhulk is also better as it comes with a nice but unexciting body built for abuse (choose it as your artifact and you get two creatures to keep) but it still provides your opponent with a fair choice. It's still probably good enough if you are a fan of Cataclysm but I don't like it more than Angel of Invention and I can't see another expensive white creature I would cut for it. The closest is Soul of Theros but I still like the overrun effect it provides from the graveyard better.
I am only highlighting Captured by the Consulate to highlight just how powerful the second ability on this is. Pacifism is a common that also prevents blocking. This costs two more mana, allows blocking and is rare. That second ability is bonkers. If this card prevented the enchanted creature from blocking I think I would include it. However, it's just too narrow to only shut off an attacker, especially when black can just sacrifice it for gain. I think at three mana it's a very close decision.
I am only highlighting Captured by the Consulate to highlight just how powerful the second ability on this is. Pacifism is a common that also prevents blocking. This costs two more mana, allows blocking and is rare. That second ability is bonkers. If this card prevented the enchanted creature from blocking I think I would include it. However, it's just too narrow to only shut off an attacker, especially when black can just sacrifice it for gain. I think at three mana it's a very close decision.
In Out
I absolutely love this entire cycle of cards that cares about drafted but unplayed cards. It's especially great in two player variants where you get some really crazy, but unplayable, stuff in your sideboard. The body of Arcane Savant is pretty bad for the cost but oh man the possibilities are endless for what you are going to cast with it. Even a low impact spell such as Boomerang is not terrible while the average case is going to be some sort of removal spell. Imagine this with an off color Plow Under or Spectral Procession. Not to mention that it interacts well with blink effects. It's just fun.
Ethersworn Adjudicator is finally being moved to the Esper section. See below for more details.
In Out
Much like with the previous card, the possibilities with Torrential Gearhulk are fun to imagine. However, while Arcane Savant is likely to result in great stories of laughter, this is going to result in tears being shed. Flashing this in attached to a counterspell or removal spell mid combat is brutal. The body is really good when you combine it with flash, too.
Deadeye Navigator was cool but soulbond just didn't play well on average. The dream of blinking things over and over never really happened, mostly because by itself this is terrible. It's only good if you have another creature that also has an ETB or leave play ability, otherwise it just awkwardly dodged removal while not really impacting anything. At six mana you need to be actively winning a game, not playing around.
Didn't Make the Cut
Insidious Will is not good. It's an actively bad card. No matter how hard to try to make Fork happen, it isn't going to happen, Wizards! And I got two of these in the prerelease...this is going to be the card I open twenty of in this set.
Look! Clone now has flash! It still isn't very good! Love the name though.
This ends my hatred of cards section.
In Out
Scrapheap Scrounger is just the upgrade that Despoiler of Souls wishes it was. It's easier to cast and has an extra point of toughness. It also has an easier to cast activated ability that is also easier to activate. It's insane how much better this card is. Despoiler was struggling to produce results because of how restrictive it is and this is just what the doctor ordered. I'm putting the Scrounger in the black section because that's where it's most likely to be played. However, any aggressive deck will be in the market for a 3/2 for 2 so this is likely to be played elsewhere as well. It just really shines so much brighter if you can use its ability.
In Out
I think people underrate how annoying Menace can be on a decent body. Noxious Gearhulk is going to be a pain in the butt to play against. It's expensive, but the life gain on the toughness should help mitigate a little bit of damage, not to mention that this blocks pretty well and attacks very well. I think it's probably one of the weaker finishers in black because it doesn't just win the game immediately like some of the other ones do but it's certainly got potential. Note that you don't have to destroy one of your own creatures if there aren't any good targets and you cast this.
Tasigur is moving to the Sultai section. See below for more details.
In Out
Regicide is just a cheaper instant-speed kill spell than Rend Flesh is. You aren't always going to be able to target a threat due to the semi-random nature of the color selection but 3/5 ain't bad and against most decks there are plenty of relevant targets. You can also get some decent signals from what color people choose depending on where you draft this. The difference between 3 mana and 1 is huge and I think this is a pretty safe upgrade.
In Out
The easiest comparison for Demon of Dark Schemes is obviously cube all-star Massacre Wurm. This is an evasive threat that has significant yet delayed bonus attached to the death clause. Massacre Wurm doesn't have evasion but it's death clause is much more immediately relevant and will directly lead to a game ending. The Demon really suffers from having virtually no other way in the cube to make energy. That said, this is an evasive threat that has an immediate impact on the board and has a game breaking ability that you should be able to activate at least once per game.
Mikaeus's power is all in the team boost in P/T and undying. Unfortunately, it is also predicated on staying in play for a number of turns and your opponents not having removal. If that happens and you have other creatures then great but way too often it sits in play for a turn or two before eating a removal spell having impacted little. The triple black is a significant cost as well.
In Out
This is kind of a neutral swap but I've been finding myself disappointed with Skinrender and wishing I could just outright kill something. The larger body rarely makes a significant difference over Nekrataal's (because of first strike) and the -1/-1 counter shrinking effect is just worse then killing something.
I want Gonti to be bigger than a 2/3 so bad it's not even funny. I love the ability but the body is just so bad (even with deathtouch) that you NEED to hit on the ability for this to be worth while. A bigger body and a different ability and this would play in cube much better. Four cards just isn't that many and while the probability of hitting a spell is high, it doesn't mean it will be a good one. While you do get to cast the spell even if Gonti leaves play, it might be too late by then as this doesn't put pressure on your opponent if you draw it late. If you casted the spell immediately without paying its CMC I would include it.
Didn't Make the Cut
Archdemon of Paliano has an interesting draft clause but it's a pretty significant drawback for something that might be worth to cost depending on where you draft it. The bigger problem is that it's a french vanilla flier with no abilities and while it's huge and efficient, there are already cards that do exactly that in the cube for the same cost in Desecration Demon and Desecration Demon which lead to more interesting gameplay. This isn't a spot where I want a ton of redundancy.
Even with the sacrifice effect this is a little too expensive to be worthwhile. Rarely are there more than two creatures in play at a given time that are worth trading a creature for (even with tokens). The biggest problem is that it's just going to be really swingy due entirely to board position, something that doesn't make for a good cube card. It's cute, but too cute.
In Out
I'm pretty sure that Combustible Gearhulk is the worst of the Gearhulks. This is ironic since I am adding it to the cube but not the white one. The body is big but the lack of evasion is a concern so the power is all in the ability. Fortunately, I think this ability is just fun. I think it's probably the worst finisher in red and is on the chopping block should they print a new one sometime in the future. However, I want to give it a run and see if it over performs.
Conquering Manticore has been in the cube since the beginning and is on the short list to come back should Combustible Gearhulk not pan out. It's always done very well but I think its the weakest of red's finishers.
In Out
Thriving Grubs is pretty much just a two mana 3/2 after it attacks once. Fortunately, that is actually good enough for cube. It's not exciting but it is what red wants. I'm hoping red gets some more good two drops because the last four or five are really unexciting.
Dragon Whisperer never panned out as it was way too mana intensive. You can't commit to the board or respond to your opponent and have this be anything more than a grizzly bear. The formidable effect was also unreliable as it's tough to get large enough creatures in red, making this reliant on another color pair to be worth its salt.
In Out
I am swapping Chandras in a huge upgrade in power. The abilities are all pretty much better and the new Chandra even protects herself in a pinch if you really have to deal 4 to something. Pryomaster is only good in parity or when you are ahead and Torch of Defiance can pull you back into a game or pull away from the opponent. Huge upgrade.
In Out
It's tough to explain just how much I love this cycle of draft cards. They make use of one of the weaknesses of cube draft (too many sweet cards) and are really fun. Volatile Chimera is red doing something interesting and fun while still being aggressive and supporting its plans. Also, red's three drops are...well...not...the best.
I've been really disappointed with the flip Chandra. The planeswalker side is fine but it's just so damn uninteresting and boring. I'm totally fine reducing planeswalkers if they aren't interesting and this is just so...fine...meh.
In Out
Lathnu Hellion is a lot like Hellspark Elemental and Hell's Thunder with a free unearth automatically paid for the following turn. I think that this is very strong and currently underrated for cube. Unlike the other two cards it actually can block for a turn and while that doesn't sound like much, it helps quite a bit. It's much more aggressive than Prophetic Flamespeaker which can't attack through much. You just never hit anyone with Flamespeaker and it gets stone-walled by any 3 toughness creature. It just doesn't work that well.
Brazen Scourge is a pretty strong three drop in a color that desperately needs better three drops. However, Boggart Ram-Gang isn't in the cube anymore (party due to mana cost) and while this is easier to cast (and doesn't have wither) it's also not overwhelmingly powerful, it's just okay. This might actually be good enough but it's just not exciting and we just got rid of a couple stinkers.
In Out
Verdurous Gearhulk should be pretty strong. Being able to split the counters however you want makes it very difficult for your opponent to punish you with a single removal spell. Even if you don't have other targets you can make this an 8/8 trample for five which is very good. It's just a lot more power and pressure on your opponent than Conclave Naturalists.
Conclave Naturalists never makes the main deck because there are always better things that can just kill your opponent instead of maybe picking off a non-essential artifact. It feels good to not really need cards like this anymore.
In Out
Caller of the Untamed is like the most fun and interesting Elvish Piper I've ever seen. I have no idea if it's as good as it feels like it is but I just want to cast these cards so much. They are just so much fun. Depending on what you put in play (which could be anything) you put your opponent in a very interesting position of NEEDING to use a removal spell on this or getting buried under unknown pressure. Maybe you don't have anything great to use with it. But will your opponent take that risk? What if the creature you put in play they can't deal with? I think it's going to play very well and create a lot of interesting game states with a lot of variety. Note you can also change the exiled card each game, not each match...increase that variety!
I over estimated the power of Surrak's formidable ability. It triggers about as commonly as I thought it would but the four toughness on this hurts quite a bit when you really just want to be smashing with everything every turn.
Didn't Make the Cut
Nissa, Vital Force is strong and reminds me of Koth with the similar plus ability. However, the ultimate isn't very good and the regrowth effect loses a lot of value since it only hits permanents. It also uses a lot of loyalty to tick down meaning you can't do it that often. It's nice the plus allows the token to sit on defense if you want and it could technically ramp you by one mana in a pinch. It also sucks that she doesn't leave anything permanent behind if she dies. Add it all up and I don't think it's better than the other planeswalkers already in the cube.
In Out
Filigree Familiar is a great glue card that will fit into almost any deck but will be very good against aggro as it trades with something cheap while gaining a little life and getting card advantage. It's pretty much everything a deck that isn't looking to rush someone wants out of a card. It might not have raw power but it's going to get played a lot.
Nobody ever played Masticore. It just didn't age very well compared to how good creatures are now. The upkeep cost is not worth the power that you are getting. It's not horrible, it's just not getting played over existing options.
In Out
Smuggler's Copter is really good. It's under costed, crews with any creature and loots on offense or defense. The body is really impressive and this dodges all sorcery speed removal if its attacking. There's just a lot to like here. One thing I particularly like about vehicles is that there are always random utility creatures hanging around in cube and they make perfect pilots as long as the crew cost is cheap. It doesn't get any cheaper than this.
Hall of Triumph suffers from my cube rarely being drafted with 8 people. If you have an 8 person draft you likely have one or two people who have the ability to be a mono-colored deck. With a two to four person draft (my usual) it's very difficult to impossible to build a mono-colored deck with any sort of reliability. Because of that this is almost unplayable due to how unreliable it is.
In Out
This is a swap out with slight upgrade. They cost the same and tap for any mana. However, people rarely took advantage of the land ability on the Lantern with regularity and oftentimes when you already have all your mana it becomes irrelevant. It's only really good early in the game and amazing when you are stuck on colors. Cultivator's Caravan is going to be able to pull you out of most of the problems that Lantern would be able to but it adds in a late game versatility that Lantern doesn't have. Randomly upgrading a 3 power creature into a 5 power one is amazing when its relatively free. This does remove the 5 color dream deck that Lantern helped but nobody was going into that anyway and it's not something I'm actively looking to support anyway.
In Out
Crew 2 is as big as I think is feasible to reliably activate whenever you want in cube. There is a chance that the Crew 3 is too hard to activate. If that is the case then this will be getting cut. If you can activate it freely then this should be great as the 3 damage adds up very quickly and the body on this is huge. Note that unlike with Smuggler's Copter, above, it only triggers on attacks which makes this much better on offense. I'm a big fan of the vehicles but I'm going to be realistic and say they need to be doing something almost every turn to be worthwhile. We'll see how this one goes.
All is Dust allowed decks that normally be able to run sweepers to have a go at one. It was always a pretty big deal when it was cast because it was so unexpected. That said, it's really expensive and there isn't a great way to abuse it in my cube. There isn't an artifact theme due to the unpowered nature and sometimes your opponent has more colorless creatures than you do. It's pretty inconsistent and gets cut for cheaper options since in the end, it's "just" a seven mana wrath.
In Out
This might end up being better than the Skysovereign due entirely to the Crew 2 as opposed to Crew 3. Like all vehicles this is good because it does something as soon as it comes into play, giving you a turn to get things situated and play another creature to activate it. At some point your opponent will have to block or trade with this and that is going to feel great for you since it's taking a burden away from you (having to be able to crew it). It's also not the type of card your opponent will want to block since it loses so much value if you have no other creatures. I think this will work out very well.
I wanted to lower the converted mana cost a little bit and the Doom Engine was the least exciting of the expensive drops in artifacts. It was just okay anyway. Nobody was exactly clamoring to play it.
Didn't Make the Cut
Dovin Baan works pretty well in a control deck and is probably unplayable anywhere else. It's not particularly interesting even in a control deck and if I was going to include a UW planeswalker I would probably just bring back Venser, the Sojourner since it was flexible. Again, I don't think this is altogether bad, it's just not interesting and doesn't work in tempo which is a big part of UW.
Cloudblazer is a victim of a very deep and versatile Azorius section. It is very good but five mana is a lot and one of the reasons that Mulldrifter is so good is that if you don't have the mana, you can cash it in early. Not being able to do that is a huge burden and makes this much harder to slot into your deck. Most cube decks would rather just play something that ends the game for five mana and this doesn't do that.
In Out
Voltaic Brawler is so much power packed into two mana. If it survives the first attack (which is likely) then you are looking at a two mana 5/4 which is insane. Even the two mana 4/3 is very good and makes blocking difficult. This will almost always trade up and while it loses a lot of value if you are behind, it does just what RG wants to do.
Ghor-Clan Rampager is not good if you cast it and I like Voltaic Brawler better than the random combat trick. Keeping your opponent honest is fine but it's just not good enough.
In Out
Dack is way better in powered cube than unpowered cube due to the presence of power. I knew that. Having played a little with him I definitely underestimated how powerful his plus one is on repeated turns. If you ever use his minus it feels like a huge blowout. He's a little fragile sometimes but if he sticks around he more than pays for himself at only three mana.
Ral Zarek has a really fun ultimate but his plus just doesn't do anything most of the time. Sometimes I just want to play him and use his minus twice and be done with it but even that isn't really worth the cost sometimes. Dack is just much better without things like Time Vault and Winter Orb to abuse his plus with.
Didn't Make the Cut
Saheeli Rai is interesting. If you have good creatures she seems win-more since she doesn't protect herself, provide any sort of sustained advantage and is actively bad if you don't have a target for her -2. She might be better in a cube with a dedicated artifact theme but she also doesn't seem particularly great on curve either. I'm not impressed.
Didn't Make the Cut
I love the design space used in this planeswalker. Unfortunately, I also think it isn't very good. None of the effects are game breaking and she is the definition of incremental advantage. I like Sorin, Solemn Visitor much better at the same cost as it has a more of a permanent presence with the tokens. With no plus abilities, Kaya is forever going to be on the edge of being killed. I think she plays pretty well but doesn't have enough raw power to compete with Sorin.
In Out
At first glance I thought Daretti was unplayable without a dedicated artifact theme. I no longer think that's the case. I think he's busted in a dedicated artifact theme and playable elsewhere. Three mana make a dude, even with defender, is a big deal. It works well in the sacrifice theme of RB and since he makes his own fodder to use for his abilities you still get to make use of his destruction ability. I can see him getting cut in the future for a more consistent and varied card in the future but right now I want to try him out. It helps that I've been underwhelmed by the God cards in cube since they are rarely creatures. They just lose so much value when they are enchantments, which is most of the time.
In Out
Coiling Oracle is a bread and butter card for Simic that I really missed having around. It does a lot of good work in the color while rarely getting cut. Just the kinds of cards I want in gold.
Simic Charm just isn't very good. The abilities are really underwhelming and pump spells just aren't that good in cube where basic creature combat doesn't happen on the same level as in regular limited.
In Out
I went back and forth on Rashmi a lot. It came down to the fact that I wanted to take out Prime Speaker Zegana. I've been unimpressed with Zegana over time as she is incredibly boom or bust. When she works she is crazy but when she doesn't she is often the worst card in your deck and neigh uncastable. Both of these cards are card advantage machines but Rashmi can pull you out of a lot of holes that Zegana can't. Zegana is only good if you already are at parity or are ahead. If you are behind, it is horrible. Rashmi can't interact in combat well at all but her ability promises to pull you so far ahead that your opponent has to answer her. Her effect is also pretty darn fun and when it's working you really feel like you are unstoppable. I'm hoping they come out with some really exciting Simic cards at some point because it is clearly on the weaker end of gold cards at the moment.
In Out
The charms are effective but unexciting. I want the gold cards, and in particular the tri-color cards, to be exciting enough to push someone into those colors. Nobody is taking a charm unless they are already locked into those three colors. Because of that, they rarely see play at all.
In Out
See explanation above for removal of three color charms. Cards like Tasiguar and Ethesworn Adjucator are great cards that can be played even if you don't have three colors but are wildly better if you do. Those are much easier to get someone to draft and play and they rarely get left in the sideboard if you are those colors.
In Out
Mana elves in green necessitate untapped mana early in the game and while the card advantage on the temple was nice in GU, that color already has easy access to card draw and doesn't really need it. It would rather just have consistency with its mana.
In Out
RW is a very aggressive color, often playing one drops in both colors and therefore would much rather have untapped mana then mana fixing. This one is a little hurtful only because both colors often make use of double color requirements but having the right mana on turn one is just so much more important.
In Out
Izzet is a tempo color that would rather have early access to mana and the temples were too slow and didn't do enough. I'd rather just have an untapped land early in the game.
Didn't Make the Cut
Both of these guilds are slower and are happier played slow lands with incremental benefits like Scry lands or Filter lands. They don't really need the early game mana fixing so these two are being left out.
Kaladesh wasn't the bed set for cube as even some of the cards that I did include are placeholders for future cards. I was able to get rid of some cards that haven't been performing as well as I had liked or hadn't aged well and for that I'm grateful. I also was able to add in some really exciting cards from Conspiracy. Vehicles also look like they are an interesting addition that I think will play well and be very main deckable. The next set is Aether Revolt and I'm hoping we get some more interesting vehicles and good two and three drops in a non-white color because those are the areas that I really haven't added too many amazing things in a while. I need more cheap staples in those colors. Ah, the struggles of having a 720 card cube.
See you in Aether Revolt!
